Sri Lanka's PM flies in for showdown

The Sri Lankan Government is bracing for a showdown with President Chandrika Kumaratunga amid mounting speculation that a snap election will be called to break the country's political crisis.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was flying home early today from a visit to Washington where he vowed to fight the power grab by Mrs Kumaratunga, who has declared a state of emergency after suspending Parliament and sacking three key ministers.

Buoyed by a personal endorsement from US President George Bush, Mr Wickremesinghe played down the threat of civil unrest but said his United National Front coalition would defend its authority and popular mandate.

"This is not the first crisis I have had. When I go back, I'll sort it out. We have a majority in Parliament. I have a mandate to bring peace to the country," he told reporters after meeting Mr Bush at the White House.

The Sri Lankan cabinet yesterday demanded that the ministers of defence, interior and information be reinstated, parliament reconvened and Kumaratunga appointees from a state television station and the main state-run publishing house be removed.

"The cabinet expressed its firm opinion that any change of portfolios and subjects should not be made by the president without prior consultation with the prime minister according to the written instructions of the attorney general," Government spokesman G. L. Peiris said yesterday.

Mrs Kumaratunga is the head of cabinet, but she did not attend its meeting on Wednesday.

A total 129 MPs - a clear majority of the 225-seat Parliament - are reported to have signed a letter to the President affirming their support for the Government and denouncing Mrs Kumaratunga's actions.

"We are calling on the President to show her numbers in Parliament and show her majority," Professor Peiris said.

Diplomats and political analysts believe that when Parliament resumes on November 19 the Government will use its numbers either to launch impeachment proceedings against the President or move to force her to call a snap election.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Mr Bush had praised Mr Wickremesinghe's efforts to end the 20-year war with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - the issue that has triggered the confrontation with Mrs Kumaratunga, whose opposition People's Alliance Party wants to limit concessions to the rebels.

"The President expressed his strong support for the Prime Minister's leadership and his commitment to peace," Mr McClellan told a news briefing.

Mr McClellan said Mr Bush had not had been in contact with Mrs Kumaratunga. "This is an internal matter for Sri Lanka," he said.

Mrs Kumaratunga claimed she had invoked her emergency powers to answer an unspecified threat to national security, but her moves are widely seen as a "constitutional coup" aimed at blocking the creation of an autonomous Tamil state and bolstering the electoral prospects of her party.

While the Government could launch impeachment proceedings with a simple parliamentary majority, the move would need a two-thirds vote to succeed.

Analysts believe it more likely that the Government will seek an election, possibly within weeks, to reassert the peace platform on which it won power in 2001.

Fears that the crisis could wreck a ceasefire between the armed forces and the Tamil Tigers receded yesterday after senior Government officials moved to postpone until January the resumption of the stalled peace talks expected later this month.